Fighting the Good Fight

Did you know that fewer than 5% of record producers and sound engineers are women? How about that when you review a huge festival line up, the number of women headliners of the bill make up for maybe one tenth of the line up? The numbers are discouraging when it comes to women verse men in the music industry however more and more women are working hard to change that number.

Antye Greie-Ripatti inspired by a 2015 interview with Björk who openly described women's role in music as "unacknowledged" and "uncredited" from personal experience, launched a Tumblr page called female:pressure  that gives visibility to female producers, DJ's, media artists, and electronic music performers at work. The idea is that the more of us there are documenting our work and celebrating the work of our female peers is to remind people that women making music is normal and happening daily all over the world.

For more statistics of women in the music industry, go here. If you are making music behind the scenes and feel comfortable sharing images of it, you should post them on your social media pages and or pass them along to sites like female:pressure to share with their readers. As I write this I am reminded that I need to do this more too as I often record at home and never think to document this part of my writing process. I intend to practice what I preach.

I am far from technical when it comes to getting down my ideas for a new song. I have a PC and use a program called Mixcraft 5 to record my vocal rough drafts for Positive No and have also used this program to write whole songs electronically for my solo project Ringfinger.

New Album Alert : Our Girl

Looking forward to Our Girl's Cannibal Hymns out December 11th. They hail from the seaside resort of Brighton, England and began as more of a solo effort of member Soph Nathan but have expanded into a trio that deliver smokey, reverbed slow burners that reminds me of the days when Madder Rose, Lush, and Bettie Serveert ruled the earth. The good news that these days have seemingly cycled back around and more of this brooding, dynamic Pop bathed in shoegazery is back.

Apple Music and iTunes is Dead to Me

As if it wasn't frustrating enough that with every iTunes software update, those of us who use iTunes to manage our large digital music catalog are faced with endless glitches and headaches, the head of Apple Music Jimmy Iovine went on CBS This Morning to say "I've always known that women find it very difficult at times - some women - to find music."

Unbelievably his sexist comments continued. "I just thought of a problem. Girls are sitting around... talking about boys right? Or complaining about boys. Or they're heartbroken or whatever. They need music for that, and it's hard to find music."

 Are you fucking kidding me?

I can't imagine a better time for music fans of any and all genders to find music. There are literally thousands of ways to discover music and it terrifies that the head of Apple Music isn't clued in to this. It goes without saying it is also mortifying that he singled out "girls" as being especially helpless at finding music and even though he has since apologized for for his mansplaining, I am done with Apple and iTunes until this man is fired. It should also be noted that none of the women sitting around the table with this jackass stood up to him for his sexist idiocy. I am equally disappointed with them as well. We don't have to accept or tolerate this kind of thinking about the portion of music fans who are women. SPOILER ALERT : THERE ARE A LOT OF US ! ! !

Apple was already alienating those of us who own large amounts of digital music as they focus on cloud based services and radio style forced discovery playlists generated for us so to me, this is the final nail in their coffin. I am done with Apple. As a music fanatic who also happens to be a women, I not only deserve better, I expect better from the companies who pride themselves as music innovators.

Throwback Thursday : The Flirts

A few days ago I mentioned The Flirts while writing about Dirty Ghosts. I have had The Flirts most well know single "Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime)" in my head ever since.

The Flirts however were not a band in the traditional sense, they were a creation of music mogul Bobby "O" Orlando who wrote the music, played the instruments, produced the the tracks, and then looked for one redhead, one blonde, and one brunette to sing the songs and tour. Needless to say there was a long string of different women who fulfilled this role who were hired guns from a background in modeling, dancing, and acting who more often that not lip synced live. The Flirts may have been a rotating cast of characters and a facade of a girl band but for a decade, there were a string of hits recorded under that name and "Jukebox" remains an '80s classic. 1982 to be exact. 

 

Backyard Report : Dazeases

Richmond, Virginia has an ever growing, diverse, and captivating music scene. It is almost impossible to keep up with it right now so I am grateful to Strange Matter for booking local artist Dazeases on the Shopping / Priests bill. She offers a powerful one woman show that takes electronic music to some dark and personal places with a flare for the dramatic. The secret goth in me that loves to dance couldn't be any more excited about her.

Her Facebook page is here.

2015 Favorite : Dirty Ghosts

This San Francisco group released a single earlier this year called "Cataract" that just might end up as my favorite song of the year. Their new wave Pop hooks are undeniably catchy. Growing up in the '80s my passion for alternative music started with artists like Nik Kershaw, Thomas Dolby, Devo, Howard Jones, and The Flirts so I find the music of Dirty Ghosts to be a modern variation of these earlier groups. Their songs are melodic yet they carry an undercurrent of melancholy and angst. Their new album Let It Pretend came out in October on Last Gang Records but consider yourselves warned. Many of these songs have earworm like tendencies so be prepared to have them stuck in your head for days at a time.

An Evening with Atta-GIRL!

Hello Richmond, Virginia area friends!

To celebrate the birth of Atta-GIRL (and the birthday of a friend), DJ Ladybrain, Solid Scorp, and myself are taking over the Portrait House stereo tomorrow night. We will be playing music made by or fronted by women from the past half century. 

Come on out and hear an evening of impeccable music curated by some very friendly, kick ass ladies. 10pm to midnight!

Below are some of the things I will be playing.

Throwback Thursday : Della Reese

Sorry Mr. Sinatra but this version is one billion times better than yours. With my birthday fast approaching, this song always come to mind this time of year.

I give you Della Reese covering "It was a Very Good Year" live from the Playboy Club in 1966.

Welcome Back Missy

Hell to the YEAH! Missy Elliott's new record WTF is out tomorrow.

Is Music a Masculine Domain?

Elizabeth Newton has written a hell of an interesting piece for The New Inquiry on how women have been excluded in music with a heavy focus on Jazz and recording collecting.

One of my favorite female DJs / collectors is Sheila Burgel and she is quoted in this article. In fact I have so much respect and awe for what she does that I have asked her to spin records along with myself and Sister Golden Haze for my birthday. You are invited to join us. I hope to interview her while she is in town visiting and will post it here in the weeks to come.

Discwoman : Girls to the Tables

A few days ago I decided my turntables were in need of new slipmats. I didn't know what I was looking for other than I wanted them to be colorful and not feature a logo of a band or gear brand name. Our record players are located in our dining room so these slipmats are something we (my boyfriend and I) need to live with daily. What I wasn't expecting in my Google search was a sea of images that mostly screamed horny, stoner dude. Meaning if it wasn't a picture of a pot leaf in some form on the slipmat, there were breasts and more breasts. 

My takeaway from that experience was that the expected customer for these items are not women, they are predominantly men. If you spend much time attending DJ nights you will know that this is a fair assumption. Where the number of women playing in bands seems to be on the rise, the number of female DJs and club promoters is not. We are a very small number and the sexism I have faced while playing in band is nearly two fold as a DJ. The expectation is that I don't know anything about my gear, how a PA works, and most insultingly to me, that I don't know anything about music. There is also a frustratingly high level of sexual harassment and abuse from people in the crowd. Some men find no issue with randomly touching a female DJ's body, getting handsy with our turntables or mixers (IE let me show you how it's done or if you can do it, it must be easy and I will try it right now without your permission), flipping through our records without asking as if they are browsing at a store, or shouting at us comments relating to our bodies and what they would like to do to them. This is our work space and it, as well as our bodies, are being violated by strangers who occasionally look at female DJs like we are strippers soliciting lap dance.

Needless to say, whenever I discover fellow female DJs or women who operate in this male dominated music world at all, I take note. 

NPR recently wrote an article about the the NYC based Discwoman, a trio of women who operate a DJ booking agency focused on showcasing female-identified DJs. Discwoman however aren't just curating events where women are the talent and running the show, they are also actively encouraging women to become involved in their world. It doesn't have to mean making or playing electronic music, they are helping teach others how to book events, run sound, and all the other various aspects that go into making a DJ night happen. It is inspiring to know that they are leading by example. The more of us there are doing these things, the less fetishized and alien women in this scene will be treated. There is comfort, safety, and power in growing our number. We all know learning a particular skill isn't the first hurdle, it is finding the courage to try at all. If we create a womb of nurturing support, there is so much talent to be born from this.  

Here is a video I found that further expands on this subject. Maybe you will find it as illuminating and encouraging as I did. 

Sidenote: For clarity sake, I am not a DJ that creates electronic music in a live setting. I have made a solo record that merged electronic music and indie rock (Ringfinger) but as a DJ, I play other people's records. I pride myself on my large and varied record collection. I do not use a laptop, I cultivate a DJ set using vinyl records from my personal collection. 

Bad Girls for Life!

Polyphonic Size

Almost exclusively produced by Jean-Jacques Burnel from The Stranglers, check out this synth wave band from Belgium that has been making music on and off since 1971. The line up has changed many times over the decades but they almost always had at least one woman in the band.

Arist to Watch : Eliot Sumner

A brain injury affects each person in an incredibly unique manner. In 2013 Eliot Sumner fell and her accident resulted in a permanent loss of a smell and a need to take strong, personality altering anti-seizure medicine. The timing of this is interesting because it coincides with a huge shift in her music career as well. She release her first record at age 17 as an electro-pop singer under the moniker I Blame Coco. Be it the nature of getting older or a genuine mood change after her fall, 8 years after the start of her career, she no longer identified with this kind of music. She wanted to do something else and thus Eliot Sumner was born.

The electronic overtones are still in place with her new direction however in listening to her newest singles, her songwriting (she plays multiple instruments) is darker and no longer candy coated. While it is impossible to not hear her father's voice in hers (no biggie, just a guy name STING), her bass playing is also strikingly similar and connects the bloodline even more deeply from parent to child. Newer influences are said to be anywhere from drone music, Kraftwerk, and prog rock.

I can't imagine the pressure of trying to cut your own path with two famous parents (her mum is actress and producer Trudie Styler) while growing up basically in front of a camera (she has modeled) and as a recording artist. She is still young, discovering her voice, and this is truthfully still the early days of her career. I am rooting for her and am really liking the songs she has released this year leading up to a full length in early 2016.

Throwback Thursday : Savage Rose

Check out this powerhouse of a Danish prog rock group Savage Rose with lead singer Annisette. Her vocal style carries the rock and roll energy of Janis Joplin and Grace Slick and like her peers, their dynamic range also includes elements of Jazz, Soul, and Gospel. Annisette's acrobatic and massive vocal range (part siren, part whisper) is often described as proto-Kate Bush which makes this exciting and complex musical group all the more ahead of their time.

2015 Favorite : Menace Beach

Leeds, England band Menace Beach formed in 2012 when Liza Violet and friend Ryan Needham joined creative forces. The band line up has changed a few times over the years but at their core is this duo of a songwriting team whose debut album Ratworld has remained in my top 10 list of favorites for 2015. They also just released a new EP entitled Super Transporterreum that picks up where the full length left off. Their intertwined male/ female vocals deliver an endless chain of hooks on top of blazing, fuzzy guitar driven Pop. My two favorite things are present, harmony and NOISE! There are hints of Dino Jr,, Weezer and Veruca Salt grungy power pop sensibilities which makes for a really tough decision. Do you sing along or head bang? Screw it, I can to do both at the same time.

Julia Wolfe : Pulitzer Prize Winner

It takes a special kind of story teller to write a body of music that reflects and honors the dangerous work and plight of Pennsylvania coal miners via an amplified sextet and large chorus. 57 year old composer Julia Wolfe has done just that and won a Pulitzer for it. 

Wolfe spent more than a year researching this subject, explored mines, visited museums, spoke with scholars, interviewing miners as well as their families, and then shaped their oral histories into 5 distinct movements. Commissioned by the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, this haunting hour long body of music is shockingly modern as it is cutting edge. Her piece entitled Anthracite Fields is a layered collaboration of musicians, costumes, choreography, candlelight, as well as film and photography. It is atmospheric yet carries the nightmarish weight of suffocating darkness. She also manages to take the listener from the formation of coal all the way to our modern day energy uses in the most thoughtful and intriguing ways possible. This is the soundtrack to what fuels our nation and those who have suffered to deliver it to us. 

This music is now available to purchase as either a CD or in digital form.

Read a NPR interview with here.

Band to Watch : Doe

How could you not love a band that has this bio? "We’re Doe. We’re from London. We like feminism, horror films and brown beer." 

And who is the band influenced by? Sleater-Kinney, Helium, Plumtree, Superchunk, Autoclave, (early) Weezer, Pixies, Breeders, Pavement, Bikini Kill

I'm sold. 

(and yes, I like cats too.) 

Stream all sorts of their records here.